Last Friday The Washington Post reported that Jared Kushner requested a back channel to communicate with Russia. Now, we responded to this report stating that even if it was true it would have been a giant nothing burger.
Well, a Fox News report contradicts this story:
Source: Russians had the idea to set up the secure line. A December meeting between Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and one of the senior advisers in the Trump administration, and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak at Trump Tower focused on Syria, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Monday.
During the meeting the Russians broached the idea of using a secure line between the Trump administration and Russia, not Kushner, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News. That follows a recent report from The Washington Post alleging that Kushner wanted to develop a secure, private line with Russia.
The idea of a permanent back channel was never discussed, according to the source. Instead, only a one-off for a call about Syria was raised in the conversation.
In addition, the source told Fox News the December meeting focused on Russia’s contention that the Obama administration’s policy on Syria was deeply flawed.
This report shows us that it was The Russians who requested a secure line and not Kushner. It also makes sure that we realize that this was focused on Syria and nothing more.
This is just more bad reporting from WaPo. Not, only did they attempt to blow what would have been a meaningless story into a giant scandal but they also blindly trusted a source who was clearly wrong.
